Study: Having More Sex Doesn't Make You Happier

Trending News: Scientists Looked Into How Much Sex We Should Be Having To Increase Happiness And The Results Are Surprising

Why Is This Important?

Because great sex is happiness, how could having more of it be bad?

Long Story Short

In the first ever study to measure the relationship between sexual frequency and happiness, researchers found that people who had more sex were slightly less happy and didn’t want sex as much. However, this might be because being told to have a lot of sex isn’t sexy.

Long Story

A new study says that getting your mojo going more often doesn’t necessarily make you happier, but read on before cutting back on your love making — actually, I’ll save you some time; have as much sex as you and your partner like.

The report from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh published in the Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organization is the first ever study to challenge the often preached notion that more sex makes happier couples.

The researchers took 128 health heterosexual couples aged 35-65 and told half of them to have twice as much sex as usual while the other group didn’t receive any sex instructions. Then, the researchers sent the lovebirds off and asked them to report daily on their happiness and to give details about the sex they were having.

It turned out after three months that couples who had more sex reported lower sexual desire and didn’t enjoy sex as much. It also led to a small decrease in happiness.

The study’s lead investigator George Loewenstein said that this result may be skewed due to scientific manipulation. In other words, it isn’t sexy when a doctor tells you to have a lot of sex.

"Perhaps couples changed the story they told themselves about why they were having sex, from an activity voluntarily engaged in to one that was part of a research study,” said Loewenstein to Science Daily. “If we ran the study again, and could afford to do it, we would try to encourage subjects into initiating more sex in ways that put them in a sexy frame of mind, perhaps with baby-sitting, hotel rooms or Egyptian sheets, rather than directing them to do so.”

Maybe it’s all about quality not quantity? Still, Loewenstein believes that most couples don’t have enough sex and they’d be happier if they did.

So, I won't tell you to go ahead and get under the sheets because that's awkward, but ;) ;) nudge, nudge.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Is there any way to do another study like this that doesn’t skew the results?

Disrupt Your Feed: Get out of my face with your negatives study. More sex > less sex.